shrouded skeleton statue

Daryl M.

Librarian


Posts by Daryl M.

  • Author Aimee Pokwatka and her latest novel, The Parliament

    Interview With an Author: Aimee Pokwatka

    Aimee Pokwatka grew up in Wheeling, West Virginia. She studied anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and received her MFA in creative writing from Syracuse University. She…

  • Author Jess Armstrong and her debut novel, The Curse of Penryth Hall

    Interview With an Author: Jess Armstrong

    Jess Armstrong's debut novel, The Curse of Penryth Hall, won the Minotaur Books/Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel Competition. She has a master's degree in American History but prefers…

  • Author James Patterson and his latest novel, Holmes, Marple & Poe

    Interview With an Author: James Patterson

    James Patterson is the world’s bestselling author. Among his creations are Alex Cross, the Women’s Murder Club, Michael Bennett, and Maximum Ride. His #1 bestselling nonfiction includes Walk in My…

  • Author Tobias Buckell and his latest novel, A Stranger in the Citadel

    Interview With an Author: Tobias S. Buckell

    Called "violent, poetic and compulsively readable" by Maclean’s, science fiction author Tobias S. Buckell is a New York Times bestselling writer and World Fantasy Award winner. He is biracial and was…

  • Author Emily Critchley and her debut novel, One Puzzling Afternoon

    Interview With an Author: Emily Critchley

    Emily Critchley has lived in Essex, Brighton, and London and now lives in Hertfordshire where she works as a librarian. She has a first-class BA in Creative Writing from London Metropolitan University…

  • Editor John Joseph Adams and his latest anthology, Out There Screaming

    Interview With an Editor: John Joseph Adams

    John Joseph Adams is the series editor of Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy and is the editor of more than forty anthologies, such as Wastelands, The Living Dead, and A People’s Future of the…

  • Collage of favorite books

    My Favorite Books of 2023

    Season’s Readings everyone! As is generally true, there have been some marvelous books published in 2023, and I’m thrilled to share my favorites with you. As I’ve done the last few years, I’ve listed…

  • Author Delilah S. Dawson and her latest novel, Midnight at the Houdini

    Interview With an Author: Delilah S. Dawson

    Delilah S. Dawson is the New York Times bestselling writer of Star Wars: Phasma, Galaxy’s Edge: Black Spire, Inquisitor: Rise of the Red Blade, The Disney Mirrorverse: Pure of Heart, Bloom, The…

  • Author Daniel Sweren-Becker and his latest novel, Kill Show: A True Crime Novel

    Interview With an Author: Daniel Sweren-Becker

    Daniel Sweren-Becker is an author, television writer, and playwright living in Los Angeles. His play Stress Positions premiered in New York City at the SoHo Playhouse. He grew up in Manhattan. He is…

  • Author Connie Willis and her latest novel, The Road to Roswell

    Interview With an Author: Connie Willis

    Connie Willis is a member of the Science Fiction Hall of Fame and a Grand Master of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. She has received seven Nebula awards and eleven Hugo awards for…


Reviews by Daryl M.

  • Cover image for Wrong Place, Wrong Time

    Wrong Place, Wrong Time

    • By: McAllister, Gillian
    • Reviewed By: Daryl M.
    It is a given that, in most mystery novels, someone dies. The death occurs either before, or shortly after, the novel begins. The bulk of the narrative will explore how or why someone died. In her new novel, Wrong Place, Wrong Time, Gillian McAllister finds a new way to approach...
  • Cover image for The Picture Bride

    The Picture Bride

    The year is 1917 and a seventeen-year-old girl named Willow, who lives with her widowed mother and two younger brothers in a small, rural village in southeastern Korea, is asked by a traveling matchmaker if she wants to get married. The older woman shows Willow a photo of a young...
  • Cover image for Darling Girl: A Novel of Peter Pan

    Darling Girl: A Novel of Peter Pan

    • By: Michalski, Liz
    • Reviewed By: Daryl M.
    We all know the story of Peter Pan, the boy who refuses to grow up. J.M. Barrie wrote and published a play and two books about Peter and his adventures in the early 20th century, recounting how Peter visited the Darling children: Wendy, John, and Michael, and spirited them away...
  • Cover image for Acts of Violet

    Acts of Violet

    • By: Montimore, Margarita
    • Reviewed By: Daryl M.
    In early 2020, Margarita Montimore published her debut novel, Oona Out of Order. It followed a woman who awakes every January 1st at a different point in her life. She lives in that year, and in that body, until December 31st, only to awaken the following morning beginning a different...
  • Cover image for Hawk Mountain

    Hawk Mountain

    • By: Habib, Conner
    • Reviewed By: Daryl M.
    In the late afternoon, Todd sits on the beach watching 6-year-old Anthony, his son, play in the surf. A man approaches Todd, and, after a minute, he recognizes him. It is Jack, who bullied Todd relentlessly during their senior year in high school. In spite of their shared history, Jack...
  • Cover image for The Kaiju Preservation Society

    The Kaiju Preservation Society

    • By: Scalzi, John
    • Reviewed By: Daryl M.
    In early March of 2020, Jamie Gray is unceremoniously demoted from marketing executive to “deliverator” at füdmüd, an internet startup company in New York City. As the COVID pandemic worsens, Jamie struggles to get by until a chance delivery happens to be to Tom Stevens. Tom tells Jamie that he...
  • Cover image for A Prayer for the Crown-Shy

    A Prayer for the Crown-Shy

    • By: Chambers, Becky
    • Reviewed By: Daryl M.
    In 2021, Becky Chambers introduced readers to the moon of Panga, where, centuries ago, the civilization’s robots gained consciousness and, en masse, walked off into the surrounding wilderness and were never heard from again. Until the day a robot named Splendid Speckled Mosscap walked up to Sibling Dex, a tea...
  • Cover image for Remarkably Bright Creatures

    Remarkably Bright Creatures

    • By: Van Pelt, Shelby
    • Reviewed By: Daryl M.
    After her husband’s death, Tova Sullivan took a job cleaning the Sowell Bay Aquarium. She works evenings after the aquarium has closed to the public, mopping the floors, clearing the trash cans, and cleaning the glass walls of the exhibition tanks until they shine. As she works her way around...
  • Cover image for The Children on the Hill

    The Children on the Hill

    • By: McMahon, Jennifer
    • Reviewed By: Daryl M.
    Monster. The word brings to mind ugly, misshapen creatures wreaking havoc wherever they go. Perhaps the most famous monster is Frankenstein’s monster from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. It’s been over 200 years since the teenaged Shelley created one of the most enduring tales of all time. And over the last two...
  • Cover image for Siren Queen

    Siren Queen

    On a whim, a young Chinese-American girl pays with an inch of her hair so that she and he sister can see Romeo and Juliet at the new nickelodeon in their neighborhood. From that moment on, she has a single desire: to be a motion picture star. Not simply an...